One Way Of Putting It
by tielan
Summary: Every culture breeds their own kind of woman, and over the years, Daniel Jackson has learned to appreciate all of them.


**NOTES**: This time the requestor wanted Daniel and Teyla, although they've technically never met in canon. It might be expected that Daniel would have come across Teyla during his time in Atlantis in _The Pegasus Project_, though, so I took a little bit of creative licence. You know that Vala was probably trying to put the moves on Sheppard. Or possibly Zelenka, just to watch him squirm a little and not quite believe that she's coming on to him. Drat! Now I have the urge to write Vala/Zelenka fic - just 'cause!

**One Way Of Putting It  
**

Ms. Emmagen moves through the landscape of Atlantis with the graceful confidence of a woman who knows her surroundings.

Daniel quietly admires in the split second between when he sees her and when she sees him. He's met hundreds of races and cultures in his time travelling through the Stargate and thousands of women. Every culture breeds its own kind of women, and Daniel finds something to admire in all of them.

Perhaps it's the lingering legacy of Sha're, but Daniel has learned to see beyond the cultural trappings that dictate a woman's place in her society. Clothing, social status and behaviour are no indication of the kind of person she is. Sha're taught him that with the strength that was so out-of-place in her male-dominated, women-as-objects culture.

Certainly Teyla has never experienced the kind of life Sha're had lived as a daughter of Abydos. A leader of her people, a capable fighter, and a guide to the local cultures here in the Pegasus galaxy - as well as one of Sheppard's team - she sees Daniel and falls into step beside him with a smile and a nod. "Dr. Jackson."

"Please," he says, "call me Daniel."

Her mouth quirks a little. Daniel guesses that it's not amusement at his expense so much as a flicker of memory crossing her mind. "Welcome to Atlantis. I understand you have been hoping to come here for some time."

"Yes." He catches the quirk of her mouth again and hazards a guess. "I suppose you've been talking to Colonel Mitchell?"

The smooth gleam of her smile says as much. "He is quite entertaining."

"Well, that's one way of putting it." Daniel can imagine what the Colonel said about him. He's not going to pursue it now. He'll do something to Cameron on the way back to Earth. In the meantime, he has other interests - this woman for starters. "You've been in Atlantis...what? Nearly two years now?"

It takes her a moment to do the math. "Yes. Perhaps a little more. It has been a busy time."

"Yeah, I can understand that." Sometimes Daniel wonders where ten years of his life went. Through the wormhole, to other planets and other worlds, into the fight against first the Goa'uld and now the Ori, into his study of the most fascinating device ever created and the societies and cultures that prevailed through its ability to connect one distant point to another.

"You were the one who opened the Earth Stargate," she says. "Do you ever wish that you had not?"

Daniel asks a question in return. "Do you ever wish you hadn't met Colonel Sheppard?"

He knows - as she does - that there is no easy answer to that question.

They've reached the commissary - known here in Atlantis as the mess hall - and, after a glance at him, Teyla leads the way to the counter and is handed her food with an easy smile by the food servers.

As Daniel watches collect the paraphernalia of a meal in Atlantis, his gaze falls on the wristwatch she wears so casually, a reminder him of how much she's had to learn in the short space of time that she's lived in the city, among the Earthlings.

They walk to an empty table and sit down, since neither Daniel's team-mates nor Teyla's appear to be in the mess hall.

He waits until they're settled and eating before gaining the courage to ask, "Do you ever find it...confusing?"

Teyla glances up and with his fork, he indicates the city around them, the food before her, the clothes she wears and the watch on her wrist.

"A little. Your world and people have a great deal of knowledge and history."

"I imagine it's a bit of a _khankhe arboh_." He hasn't had much time to pore over the notes on Teyla's people, but he's done his research and his reading.

The term means 'a dunk in spring runoff' and has all the connotations of the surprise and difficulty of adapting to new circumstances. In colloquial terms, 'culture shock'.

A smile touches her lips. "That is one way of describing it. Yes. At times it is confusing. My people are...less complex."

Daniel feels pinned beneath the quiet intensity of her gaze. "I'd like to meet your people while I'm here. They're still on the mainland?" There's been talk about trying to persuade the Athosians to move off-world. Concerns about the Wraith, about evacuation, about the fate of the Athosians if Atlantis is destroyed by the Wraith. "If you're okay with it."

He came to Atlantis to find out more about a device with which to fight the Ori. However, since it looks like the Ancients are going to play stickler-for-the-rules, and it'll be several days before the _Odyssey_ returns to the Milky Way galaxy...Daniel has time on his hands.

Brows like the wings of birds lift in preparation for flight. "I apologise. It is not a common request among visitors."

He shrugs. "I'm not a common visitor." The words are out before he realises what he's said, and flushes. "Uh..."

Teyla's smile only makes him blush further. There are elements of Teal'c about her - the sense of calm purpose, the lurking good humour, the determination - echoes of Daniel's friend, who isn't here, but who, he senses, would like this woman who has made an unexpected alliance to free her people.

"Colonel Sheppard is flying me out to the mainland this morning," she said. "You are welcome to join us if you wish."

"He is?" Colonel Sheppard half-flings himself into the chair beside Teyla. "Shouldn't you be asking me before you go offering lifts to strange men, Teyla?"

Daniel hides his smile in his coffee mug. He knows the look Sheppard's giving him, he's seen it on Jack's face when Jack was being protective of Sam.

"I did not realise that Daniel was counted as strange men," Teyla is saying in mild reproval. "You were willing to take Dr. Henstridge last week."

"Okay," Sheppard concedes as he sits forward. "Got an interest in the Athosians, Dr. Jackson?"

It is, Daniel supposes, one way of putting it.

- **fin** -


End file.
